Mutants & Masterminds - [Review] Gadget Guide: Biotech

[jameson (ST)]

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Gadget Guide: Biotech

Vitals: Published By Green Ronin • 6(5) pages • $1.29 • full color PDF

"Behold ladies and gentlemen, I have engineered the perfect minion - bred for strength, intelligence, and, above all, loyalty ..."

What's in it?

Much like the past couple of these products (nanotech & cybertech) Gadget Guide: Biotech really isn't a guide to gadgets of any kind. You could call it a power profile after a fashion, but I think at this point that Biotech has completed the metamorphosis that the began in Nanotech and Cybertech. Biotech could perhaps best be considered a Descriptor Guide (oh!, perhaps Descriptor Download). Aside from a single example of a living/biotech vehicle, a single power write up, and two new modifiers the product stays away from mechanics of any kind.

Instead we get detailed discussion of Descriptors and what I could call major power "categories" ranging from Biochemicals to Living Technology. Each of these gets a few or more paragraphs covering the nature of the topic, the possible uses, as well as some examples (mostly textural only). The product references a handful of Gadget Guide and Power Profile products (meaning you don't get a lot of repeated ground, which I think is a wise directional choice for this guide), and likewise references several sections of the core rules for additional examples or explanations.

Closing Thoughts

Gadget Guide: Biotech should probably not be a gadget guide, but one might suppose that I am arguing semantics. The important thing is that regardless of its applicability as a "gadget guide" it is most certainly a useful extension of the rules in much the same way that many of the Power Profiles were. Though it comes a year later and has a different structure it is similar to that line in spirit and theme. In that capacity it does its job admirably.

Rating: 90% - A worthy line extension containing both new rules add-ons and well written and thematic discourse on the chosen subject.

[SalmonMax]

Hmm...sounds pretty interesting. I'm not sure how I feel about a move from mechanics-heavy (which can be useful for M&M products) to fluff-heavy content...I don't feel like I really need a supplement to come up with fluff. That said, like nano and cybertech, biotech is pretty interesting stuff to me.

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Thanks!

[jameson (ST)]

I think given the way that the power profiles line did things there is a certain point at which cross referencing becomes a better strategy than regurgitating examples from elsewhere.